Universal Sports (DTV broadcast signal) has really taken the piss out of the Olympics

[MrCoffee]

Back in the day, I had no idea who these Winter Olympians were, but every four years, I'd be riveted to the bobsled and the speed skating and the downhill.

Now I get Universal Sports, an NBC channel broadcast over the air on DTV. I've been sort of following the various winter sports World Cups, and can recognize quite a few of the names of non-American competitors. Even better, I've picked up on some of the strategy, tactics and nuance of some of the sports that I didn't understand before thanks to my quadrennial exposure.

Universal Sports is excellent, primarily because they just buy the European TV feed and stick a couple of American commentators in a closet (literally, it's a tiny little room with a couple of monitors and headphones; I laughed my ass off when they showed them once). What's really great is that Universal Sports apparently has NO CONTROL over the feed at all. They just air whatever comes. So we get to see all the competitors, all the runs, all the same.

So the end result is that most of the suspense and intrigue of a "new to me" sport is erased and replaced by UTTERLY SHIT coverage given by over-the-airwaves NBC. On the plus side, Universal Sports should have proper coverage of the Games in about a month or so.

[DoBotherMe]

1. NBC Olympics Coverage Sucks

I googled that and got 498,000 hits. I don't have cable so I tried to get streaming and its blocked here in the US, except crappy p2p streams that can be shut down. I've been listening online at Eurosports and that has really been fun.

Yes it is really exciting to get unscripted coverage from the other outlets. Now that I know about Eurosports I'll be watching soccer, cricket and wintersports from around the world! Dana ; )